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Liverpool bids for school to train home-grown doctors

Liverpool University is planning to open a medical school in north and west
Cumbria to tackle the shortage of doctors in the region.

In a partnership with Lancaster University, the University of Central
Lancashire (UcLan) and St Martin's College, Liverpool is preparing a bid to the
Higher Education Funding Council for England. If the bid is successful, the
school could be up and running in two years. At least 50 medical students would
carry out clinical training in hospitals in the Blackpool, Wyre and Fylde and
Morecambe Bay areas each year. They would receive Liverpool medical
degrees.

John Caldwell, dean of medicine at Liverpool, said the university wanted to
attract more high-calibre undergraduates to the region and encourage much
greater investment in healthcare research.

"There are shortages of both general practitioners and hospital consultants in
Cumbria and Lancashire - areas that do not enjoy the benefits of a medical
school," he said. "Evidence shows that doctors who receive their training and
education locally are more likely to remain in the area when they
qualify."

Lancaster is already involved in teaching Liverpool medical students, and it
will be joined by UcLan and St Martin's as the school is developed.

Professor Caldwell said student numbers on Liverpool's undergraduate medical
course had risen by almost 100 over the past five years. With the new medical
school, an extra 120 doctors could be trained by 2008 - although he estimated
that this would provide the region with only 70 per cent of the doctors it
needs.

Kath Reade, chair of the Cumbria and Lancashire Strategic Health Authority,
stressed the importance of developing "home-grown" medical education. "This
work will make sure that we have adequate numbers of doctors for our
population," she said.

"We will continue to be involved in the university's 'grand-parenting' of this
project," she added.

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